MAGNET contributing writer Jud Cost is sharing some of the wealth of classic films he’s been lucky enough to see over the past 40 years. Trolling the backwaters of cinema, he has worked up a list of more than 500 titles—from the silent era through the ’90s—that you may have missed. A new selection, all currently available on DVD, appears every week.
Fitzcarraldo (1982, 157 minutes)
An Irishman dubbed “Fitzcarraldo” by the Peruvian locals has but one desire in life, now that his former pet project, the Trans-South American Railroad, has failed dismally. He’s determined to build the world’s greatest opera house in a place called Ixtuba, deep in the Amazon outback. And then he will enlist his favorite singer, Enrico Caruso, to perform at the grand opening. As the film opens, a tousle-headed, bleach blonde Fitzcarraldo (Klaus Kinski) is paddling a small boat up the Amazon with his paramour Molly (Claudia Cardinale), the proprietor of a local brothel, to hear Caruso sing in this thriving port city.
In their finest evening wear, the pair scrambles up the muddy banks of the river and down a rough street to the concert hall. They are barred from admission, however, by a security guard, since they don’t have tickets. Molly explains that Fitzcarraldo intends to build an opera house and the ticket-taker, touched by her story, relents and allows the pair to enter the performance hall. Fitzcarraldo later swears that Caruso has made eye contact during the performance, thus silently agreeing to christen the opera house he is about to build.
“When I have my opera house, you will have your own box seat,” Fitzcarraldo murmurs later to a manta ray the native children have plucked from the nearby river to his hammock. He swings the heavy tone arm of his ancient apparatus onto a 78-rpm disc of classic opera as the kids watch the platter turn round and round in amazement.
Later that evening, Fitzcarraldo pulls up a chair next to a loudmouthed man with a huge stack of cash in front of him, attesting to his luck at the gaming table. “Sit down, and play a hand with us!” he bellows, stuffing a few large bills into Fitzcarraldo’s jacket pocket. “There’s nothing like the thrill of losing large amounts of money!” He also assures Fitzcarraldo there’s no possible way he can obtain a patent on the ice he has lugged into his home. “If we did that, you could build a Trans-Amazon Railway on ski sleds and just push it across the jungle!” the man roars.
Next day, Fitzcarraldo is shooting the rapids of the Pongo River, listening to the pipe dreams of a rubber baron. If he could somehow find a way to get goods transported from this river to the Amazon, just over the hill, he explains, it would entirely change the economy of the region. He’s talking to the right man, one with the vision and the confidence that he can pull off such an impossible task. And one who also recalls the mock toast the previous evening by one particular non-believer: “To Fitzcarraldo, the conqueror of the useless!” And a broad grin begins to creep across his face.
